Eric Trump To Struggling Americans: ‘My Father Is Running For You’

CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 20: Eric Trump delivers a speech on the third day of the Republican National Convention on July 20, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump received the number of votes needed to secure the party's nomination. An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Cleveland, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media. The four-day Republican National Convention kicked off on July 18. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

CLEVELAND (CBSNewYork) — Eric Trump, the second youngest son of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, said Wednesday that his father will use his business background to rescue a country that has gown deeply downhill.

Speaking at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Eric Trump said his father told the family he wanted to run for president because, “He could no longer sit idly by and watch our beloved country – the country that had given our family so much success and so much opportunity crumble before our very eyes.”

Eric Trump said his father could not stand to watch an “inept” administration – though he did not mention President Barack Obama by name.

He said the elder Trump also could not stand “continued” attacks on the Second Amendment and gun rights, and to see, “the words ‘Christmas’ stripped from public use, or the Pledge of Allegiance removed from our schools in an effort to be politically correct.”

Eric Trump went on to say his father had made huge sacrifices to join the presidential race, given that he had set aside his iconic business and his success to “give that dream back to the people that it had eluded for so long.”

He said Donald Trump was the ideal candidate given his business acumen, and said his father would bring an overdue “common sense business approach” to the White House.

He said his father knew not only the art of a deal, but “the value of a dollar – our tax dollars.”

“It’s time for a president who has always been the one to sign the front of a check, not the back,” Eric Trump said, adding later, “He turned dreams into reality his entire career. It’s what he does. It’s who he is.”

“My father is running for you,” Eric Trump said repeatedly – invoking unemployed workers, single mothers, and others whom he said could blame regulation and government mismanagement for their predicaments.

“Vote for the candidate who has never been a politician. Vote for the candidate for has never received a paycheck from our government…. Vote for the candidate that cannot be bought, sold, purchased, bribed, coerced, intimidated, or steered from the path that is right and just and true,” Eric Trump said.

“His answer? ‘Only if it got so bad that I had no choice,’” Eric Trump said. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, that day has come.”